Slide Ranch

Slide Ranch Mission
The mission of Slide Ranch is to connect children to nature. Slide Ranch teaches visitors the impact our choices have on food, health, and the environment, through hands-on activities and independent exploration of our farm and coastal wild lands.

Every bite of food connects us to the soil, sun, water, and air, and to the people who work to feed us. Slide Ranch teaches respect and responsibility for sustaining these connections.

Organization
Located on the Pacific Coast, a thirty-minute drive north of San Francisco, Slide Ranch is a nonprofit environmental education center and farm located on public park land in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Close to the urban Bay Area yet surrounded by wildlands, Slide Ranch is a beautiful, isolated educational farm perched on the rugged coastal edge of the continent.

Program participants learn to care for farm animals and gardens, explore miles of wildland trails, discover ocean tide pools, and sometimes camp overnight. Our Teachers-in-Residence customize each program to meet the learning needs of groups of all ages, ethnicities, and cultures, focusing particularly on elementary school-aged children. Slide Ranch programs serve all ages, from preschool to adult.

Slide Ranch is committed to providing hands-on opportunities for learning about food, farming, and the environment to people who otherwise would not have the chance. Approximately one-third of our total programs support under-served populations, and more than half of school and community groups receive scholarships. Participants come from all over the Bay Area.

Programs
Slide Ranch has 4 main programs that run seasonally.  During the school year, there are day and overnight programs for schools and community groups, and family programs on the weekends. During the summer, Slide Ranch hosts a day summer camp. All these programs are taught by the Teachers-in-Residence, a committed group of emerging environmental educators who live and work on the ranch for 10.5 months while receiving training and hands-on experience with organic gardening, animal husbandry, building, and sustainable living.